Mount Vesuvius

lüo tirst ccntury of our era, and doubtless for many previous centuries, Vosuvius was what would now be cal led an extinct volcano. Rising some threc thousand foet above the sea, it fornied a notable landmark iu one of the fairest landscapes of the Roman Empire. lts slopes are richly culti ated, save around the summit, where the loose volcanic einders had not yet been covered by the mantle of vegetation that dnring the previous centunes had been gradually creeping up tho mountain. The barren crest surrounded a deep cráter, whose rugged walls, tapestrted with wild vines, inclosed the level space in which Spartacus and his tlirec thousand companions eneainped. Intelligent observers had noticed the probable volcanic origin of the. mountain, and tradition spoko of liavingformerly emitted fire. But to the surrounding inhabitants it gave no sense of insecurity. The peasants planted their vines up its slopes, and the wealthier Romans travelod to bathe in the warm springs that still issue not far from its roots, and to enjoy tho balmy climate of that fsvored región. At last a succession of earthqnakes, soine of them of considerable violenoe, continued during a period of sixteen years to shake the Vesuvius Campania. Some of the towns around the mountain were eonsiderablydamaged. A Pompeian inscription records that the temple of Isis in that town had to be rebuilt from the very foundations. The subterranean commotion culminatel in the great explosión which in the year 79 blew out the southern half of the upper part of the cone of Vesuvius. Seen trota the west side of the Bay of Naples in the early hours of tho eruption, the cloud of steaai and fraguieiitary materials that issued from tho mountain rose in a huge column, which spreads out at the top like the branches of an Italian pine tree. In the innnediate neighborhood of the volcano einders and pieces of "burning rock" feil in a continuous shower, gradually filll'ie town. erushing in the roofs, and driving the inhabitants to the fields. Violent eartliquakes accompanying tho successive volcanic discharges shook and shattered the houses and kept tho sea in commotion. So vast was the (JUMnlity of ïwHoo and cionoa tlirowu out that the country for miles around was covered with debris. For threo flays the air continued so loaded with fine dust that a darkness as of night overspread the landscape. When daylight returned the fields and gardena liad disappeared under a deep coverin of white ashes that lay on tne ground likc snow. The main portion of the voleanie detritus was no doubt ejected in the earlier stages of the eruption, as uiay be inferred from the fact that. the body of the eider Pliny (who, after the conrtyard of tho house in which he had been sleeping was nearly choked up with fallen :u-1ks and stones, had retreated to the fields) was found threedays after, lying wheru he had fallen, and "not concealed by tho dust that had settled down in the interval. There is no evidence that any lava was emitted during the eruption. But the red-hot stones and the glaro from the cráter upon the overhanging pall of cloud probably show that molten lava rose to the surface in the vont of the volcano, while much of the impalpable dust that lilled the air was no doubt due to the explosions of superheated vapors by whicb successive portions of the risiñg column of lava wero blown out. Though tho ill-fated región was spared the destrnction which would have been caused by the outflow of st rearas of lava, it was in somo places near the base of Vesuvius invaded by rivers of a thick, pasty mud produced by the condensation of tho den-e olouda of vapor and the mingling of the wal er with the fine voleanio ashes. These mud torrents swept over Herculaneuni, burying it to a depth of liftv feet or more. At Pompeii, also, the heavy rain seems to have formed similar mud, which ran down into tho basémenta of the houses and quieklv enveloned the human victims who had